Currently known devices for applying pressure to soft tissue surrounding a bone fracture include a relatively soft material such as a sponge that is held against the soft tissue by a brace.
To use such devices, the sponge is positioned on the interior surface of the brace while the brace is in an untightened configuration so that when the cross-sectional dimension of the brace is reduced, the resulting position of the sponge overlies the apex of the bone fracture. In response to the reduction in diameter of the brace, a distribution of radially directed force is applied over the sponge and the sponge thereby applies a distributed pressure to the soft tissue adjacent to the bone fracture.
Such devices typically suffer from the drawback of requiring several iterations of engagement and disengagement of the brace to suitably adjust the magnitude of and the position at which pressure is applied to the soft tissue. Further, it is difficult to maintain the pressure applied to the soft tissue using such devices. Still further, the operation of such devices are complex and not user-friendly. Still further, they are limited to applying force to the soft tissues by mechanical means.